Debates around the Green New Deal have largely centered around climate change concerns on land. A new paper from Rebecca Lewison and colleagues explains why policies that integrate terrestrial and ocean approaches are needed to create a robust portfolio of climate adaptation and mitigation measures supporting communities, the environment and the economy. “A Teal Deal combines land and ocean approaches to address climate change, generating economic benefits to communities everywhere,” Lewison said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that rapid, responsive and coordinated efforts across sectors can stop a crisis. The climate change crisis is ongoing and an integrated policy offers the same opportunity -- to develop a responsive and coordinated multi-sectoral plan for climate resilience.”
For more, visit SDSU NewsCenter

By Dr. Isabel Rojas-Viada

In early Spring, Dr. Megan Jennings and I ventured through the Santa Margarita River gorge, within San Diego State University’s Ecological Reserve, named after the same river. Our task was to deploy temperature data loggers along and across the river, to monitor the gorge’s climates and map climate refugia, part of the project “Connecting Wildlands and Communities”.

Climate refugia are at the core of today’s conservation toolkit as they can protect species’ populations from anthropogenic climate warming, maintaining more stable climates than surrounding sites and having less exposure to extreme weather events like heat waves or droughts. To find these climate stable sites, we will quantify the rate of climate warming across the landscape and assess persistence and behavior of local weather events that alter the effect of regional climate warming. To meet our objectives, we are monitoring microclimates at the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve to learn what weather events drive climate variability in our region and to adjust coarse scale maps that we are developing with other types of data.

On a misty, sunny morning, we launched our walk along the narrow, sinuous gorge. Our eyes were captured by an ever-changing river, with ponds and short rapids built from rocks of many shapes and colors. Along the river banks, we found riparian ecosystems of various kinds, from wetlands dominated by cattails and giant reeds, to small patches of oaks. Those oaks were gorgeous. By being a more mesic species, they are a sign that microclimates allowed their establishment. I really enjoyed looking at their form and color. They transported me way far south, to the mediterranean rivers in Chile. There, trees of the same color and size, with hard, evergreen, sclerophyllous leaves stand, sharing a similar river and the same sky. We also encountered some wild animals; we saw some of them, we heard others, and we spotted a few of them by the remains of their presence, their scat; enough to know they were close by. 

Our walk continued for a long day. Without a trail and little references, we expected some challenges on your way. We crossed the river four times; so staying dry wasn’t easy. We also encountered a patch of prickly pear cactus blocking our way. We had two options, that spiny prickly pear patch or a rocky cliff. Fortunately, we didn’t have to choose one of those options, as Megan neatly cut a path through the patch. I’m not sure what we would have done without Megan’s gloves and knife. You must be prepared for everything when you are out there in the gorge! At the end, and after beating lots and lots of chaparral, we successfully deployed the loggers following our plan.

​We will continue our climate monitoring in the Santa Margarita river. Stay tuned about project updates at “Connecting wildlands and communities”. I want to thank the managers of the reserve, Pablo Bryant and James Bourdon, for their support and facilitating our field trips. I acknowledge the contribution of project collaborators: Rebecca Lewison, Dan Cayan, Douglas Alden, Julie Kalansky, Alan and Lorraine Flint. 

​List of species:
Birds:
Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, American Coot, Acorn Woodpecker, Great Blue heron, Western Scrub-Jay, California Towhee, Yellow-rump Warbler, Common Yellow-throated warbler, Hooded Oriole, American Goldfinch, Wren spp, Mallard, Song Sparrow, American Crow, Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Northern Mockingbird, Anna’s Hummingbird, California Quail.
 
Amphibians:
California tree frog, Bullfrog
 
Reptiles:
Rattlesnake (heard but not seen, so species is unknown!), western fence lizard, whiptail lizard
 
Mammals:
Bobcat, Coyote, Brush rabbit, ground squirrel, woodrat. 
 
Insects:
Damselflies, Dragonflies, Swallowtail butterfly, California sister butterfly, Darkling beetle
 
Plants:
Coast live oak, Toyon, Willow cottonwood, Salix spp. (Willow), Western Sycamore, Wild grape, California Bee Plant, Indian paintbrush, Fingertips (Dudleya edulis), Chaparral yucca, Poison oak, White sage, Black sage, Laurel sumac, California sagebrush, Sugar bush, Chamise, Ceanothus spp., Gazania, Alder spp., Tree Tobacco, Fan palm, Eucalyptus spp, Morning glory sp., Thistle spp., Miner’s Lettuce, California dodder (Cuscuta californica), Common cryptantha, Phacelia spp., Sticky monkeyflower, Coastal Prickly Pear, Iris spp., Lupinus spp.,
Stinging lupine, Giant reed. 

Maintaining landscape connectivity is recognized as critical to protecting viable populations and ecosystems on the landscape. Yet, much of the science around connectivity considers landscape as static, ignoring changes in land use pressure, other stressors and climate change. The Lewison lab is editing a special issue of Land that focuses on landscape connectivity in dynamic systems. The special issue will present cutting edge science on case studies and challenges of dynamic connectivity,  best practices and lessons learned for researchers and practitioners,  an exploration of the role of stakeholder engagement, social networks and boundary-spanning organizations in successful dynamic connectivity planning, and approaches to support decision-making, prioritization and implementation of dynamic connectivity. 

To learn more about the special issue (due out in Summer 2020), click here

 A new academic year is upon us and with that comes new members joining the lab! To get to know our new Lewison Labmates a bit better we put together a quick Q&A.
​

Nima Farchadi, Ph.D. Student

Dr. Isabel Rojas-Viada, Postdoctoral Researcher

Widely spread across the western United States, mule deer are the most hunted large mammal in California and serve as the primary prey source of mountain lions – making them an economically and ecologically important harvested species. Populations of harvested species face pressures from both natural predators and competitors as well direct pressures from human hunters, and mule deer are no exception. Wildlife managers must accordingly keep close tabs on deer population numbers to ensure that harvest intensity is sustainable and deer abundance remains relatively stable. However, over the last 30 years, the California mule deer population has exhibited a steady trend of decline. Due to these sustained reductions in California mule deer populations, interest in improving and implementing routine population abundance assessments has arisen for state wildlife managers and citizen-lead mule deer organizations. Therefore, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has partnered with scientists to develop and execute state-of-the-science deer abundance estimation techniques across the state and assess their effectiveness in various habitat types and landscapes.

Yesterday, over 200 people participated in San Diego's first Climate Summit at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The event, organized by the Climate Science Alliance - South Coast, featured a forthcoming report, "San Diego County Ecosystems: The Ecological Impacts of Climate Change on a Biodiversity Hotspot" that will be part of California's Fourth Climate Change Assessment. The day featured an overview presentation about the report, panel discussions with the ​authors, and the release of an Executive Summary of the report for managers, planners, and decision makers. The day was rounded out with workshops on communicating about climate science and a sunset reception overlooking the ocean.

Dr. Megan Jennings, lead author of the report, helped organize the event. Read more about it in this SDSU News Center article!

All photo credits: USFWS

To learn more about Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge and ocelots in south Texas, try these helpful links:

Laguna Atascosa NWR Home Page      Laguna Atascosa NWR Facebook Page          Viva the Ocelot Facebook Page

​Bobcats are small carnivores that are widespread in the United States. Beyond a species of conservation interest in their own right, bobcats can also act as an indicator of functional connectivity. That is because bobcats need to disperse, have relatively large home ranges, utilize urban edge, and are resource selection generalists. If bobcat populations can move across a landscape, then it is possible that maybe other plant and animal species can too. If bobcats cannot move across the landscape, then it tells us that the landscape has barriers and is fragmented. 

Julia Smith, a Masters candidate in the Lewison lab, is using bobcat genetics to learn more about landscape connectivity. Julia is building a dataset that uses bobcat genetic data from throughout Southern California, in collaboration with the National Park Service, the United States Geological Survey, Colorado State University, and the University of California, Los Angeles. By running microsatellites, a type of genetic marker, Julia will be able to see if there are any differences in bobcat dispersal through a gradient of urbanization in Coastal Southern California. ​